


Transgressors

by Harukami



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
Genre: Gen, Spoilers, True Demon Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-04
Updated: 2013-12-04
Packaged: 2018-01-03 10:50:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1069586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harukami/pseuds/Harukami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Demi-Fiend comes to understand his co-conspirators a little better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Transgressors

It's not a fast assault on god, but a slow walk through the space between realms, gathering followers, feeling their army build behind them, creating threats to throw at the almighty as the demon hoards grow, and grow, and grow. There are many worlds, and many demons, and they will need to gather as many of all of them that they can before they can fight the god who stands over all the worlds.

As they walk, the Demi-Fiend thinks, and eventually he steps up to fall into step behind the young woman in black who pushes the old gentleman's wheelchair at the head of the army.

"I know who you are," he says.

She tilts her head to the side a little to watch him; he can't see her gaze through her veil, but he can feel it. He tries to meet it, calm and even, although her reaction and her expression are impossible to read.

"Do you?" she asks.

"I think so," he says. "I don't understand how it happened, but I understand this much."

The old man laughs, the sound dry as time itself. He spins his cane in his hand, runs his thumb over its engraved silver head. "It is because she is the first human who demanded freedom," he says. 

"So you are human," the Demi-Fiend says.

The woman in black laughs, softly, and he knows that laugh. Knows it from the head of the classroom, knows its tone -- hope and frustration mingled together in one sound. "I am human, or was," she agrees. "And I have always involved myself in plans to free existence entirely from all of its bindings. It is how I came to serve my master." She inclines her head to the chair in front of her.

They shift, and she is the old woman now, holding onto the hand of the child. It is harder to recognize the woman he knows in her like this, but now that he knows, he can see it regardless. He wonders at the reason behind the change, but perhaps there is no meaning to it at all. "You didn't seem aware of it at the time."

"I was not," she says. "Takao Yuko was a part of me that was separate from the rest; my human part shorn off to bring the conception and to raise the potential for the birth of a demon like yourself. My young master wanted someone to stand for his idea of Freedom when seeking a Reason, and I obliged. Of course, it was impossible that I could form a Reason of my own, but when I drifted off between the worlds, that part of myself could return."

"Yet you existed at the same time," the Demi-Fiend says. "You said to me that you knew I would help you. Words that separate part said."

The child speaks up, in a soft whisper. "What is time?" he asks. "What is time to any of us, or space, or linearity."

He has to concede the point, and shifts his attention to the child, too. "She always appears as your assistant."

"Because she has always assisted me," the child says. He tugs on her hand, looks up at her with a small smile. "In the suffering of the world, in the longing for freedom from all fetters."

"You said--" The Demi-Fiend interrupts himself, shakes his head. "She said, interpreting for you, that you longed to see my suffering. That it would entertain you."

The old man in the wheelchair has taken the child's place again, the young woman pushing him calmly forward, ever forward. "Yes," he says.

"But you wanted me at your side."

"Yes," he says again.

"What role is there for us but of suffering?" the woman in black says. "You were cursed as well when you stood in front of Kagutsuchi and demanded the death of the world, rather than the rebirth. You were cursed for all eternity, and to suffer for all eternity. You were declared evil incarnate, as were we, and banished for your transgressions against creation, as were we."

The Demi-Fiend's skin glows faintly in the ever-present darkness, reflecting light off both their faces. "Then," he says, "you wanted a companion. One who could understand both your feelings. Even though you already had each other?"

"Two is not not enough," the woman in black says. "There should be three."

"A triumvirate?" the Demi-Fiend asks.

The old man lets out a soft laugh, like papers falling, and taps the head of his cane in his hand again. "A trinity, perhaps," he says.

The Demi-Fiend laughs as well, finally, and says, "Very well. I see."

They march on.


End file.
